Myself and my team won first place in Turkey and in universities in Kuwait, and 2nd place in Lebanon and Morocco. I worked really hard to get there, but people just don’t talk about these things. Sport is the only thing that makes me want to move. The Kuwaiti culture is changing… People wear yoga pants in public now. [ Laughs ] And everyone’s into Crossfit.

I play table tennis for the national team. I’ve been playing it for 9 or 10 years now, and we participate inside and outside of Kuwait in tournaments and championships. I started sports when I was 8 years old, with Karate. I was told I was going too much after I developed muscles all over my body, that I should change my sport because of it. But my mom was one of my first inspirations to become active. Family has such an impact on a child when you grow up in a house that has a few sporty people in it. Things are changing and becoming more open for women now. People are realising that ladies are into sport, it’s not how it used to be before, it's more accepted.

Honestly I love having muscles. It was my mom who was like, “I think you should stop…”

In general though, women now want to reach more and do more, women have goals and want to give back to society. It’s becoming easier for us to be stronger.

When it comes to sport, you always have a role model you want to become like, there was that Lebanese girl, her name is Tvine Moumjoghlian, a table tennis player. Everyone thinks table tennis is just straightforward but everyone has a different style. My style was exactly like hers. When I started we were just 6 or 7 girls in the team, but now it’s grown much bigger.